New JRC official looks to future of downtown
Trending
Michael Edwards, the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation's new director of downtown revitalization, has been on the job for just over a month, and in that time his focus has been on learning about the assets of downtown Jamestown and looking towards downtown's future.
Edwards has been involved in downtown revitalization projects in different communities since 1986. His first job was in North East, Pa., and his career track then took him to larger cities, doing similar work in Buffalo, Spokane, Washington, Pittsburgh, and, most recently, running the Chicago Loop Alliance in downtown Chicago. Heading towards the end of his career, Edwards said he wanted to end in a small rural community that presents both opportunities and challenges for him to apply everything he learned in the last 40 years to once specific place; which ended up being Jamestown.
"I think Jamestown is pretty great," Edwards said. "There's certainly a lot of assets to work with, like the Comedy Center and the lake are probably the two biggest attractions that the Jamestown area has. There's a lot to work with, of course there's the Robert H Jackson Center and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and of course all of the beautiful nature around us; a lot to work with."
During his first month on the job Edwards has done his best to meet with all of the merchants downtown, along with the property owners and investors that are interested in investing downtown. He said he has been working to find out what they think about downtown, and has been finding that there is a lot of great energy around people that have already invested in downtown Jamestown. Edwards has also had opportunities to meet with political leadership such as Mayor Kim Ecklund and County Executive PJ Wendel, along with partner agencies such as the Chautauqua County IDA, the Chamber of Commerce and the Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau.
"In terms of resources, there's a lot of people who really care about the future of downtown Jamestown and are committed to work and go forward," Edwards said. "I feel like my responsibility and that of the JRC is to provide leadership from a downtown perspective as part of a larger, county-wide, economic development strategy."
Project-wise, Edwards has already had many different, great things going on, he said, that have been assigned to him. This includes organizationally reviewing the JRC bylaws, adding members to the board of directors with downtown expertise, and evaluating current programs to see if they are effective. Edwards added the general feeling is that many of the programs could be improved.
At the mayor's request, Edwards said he and the JRC are also participating in the Local Planning Committee for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative funds awarded to the city from the state.
"We're part of that discussion about how those dollars should be spent to really leverage positive things going forward for the urban core," Edwards said. "We're also now involved in a really exciting initiative which is the meeting and conferences initiative."
The meeting and conferences initiative, Edwards said, is working with a consultant out of New York City to position Jamestown as a boutique meeting and conference center. With almost 600 hotel rooms and available event space, Edwards added the initiative is to help the city bring in small, 50 to 150 person conferences. This is to benefit downtown Jamestown and the merchants and restaurants there.
The JRC with the help of the city has also just finished up an inventory of all of the downtown properties and their conditions and use, to get a better feel of where things need to be invested in the future and where the opportunities and challenges for downtown lie.
Something else Edwards is working on is the narrative about Jamestown.
"I've worked in many cities, and citizens can be their own worst critics," Edwards said. "We need to demonstrate to people that downtown Jamestown is a good place, an interesting place, it's a place they would want to come with their friends and family. One of the things we're going to be working on is to kind of demonstrate to people that they should come and experience their downtown. It's not ours, it's theirs, and we just want them to have a great time."
One of the first things Edwards said the JRC is doing on that front is looking at marketing, messages and social media to put a narrative out there that is authentic and can remind people "what a wonderful place they live in."